Having finished her meal, Zhao Wan'er led Su Lan and the others out of the hangar.
Instructor Qin had refused at first — but the moment she heard the word "bath," she sniffed at herself, gagged, and decided to follow Zhao Wan'er out after all.
The teachers and students of the two academies watched Zhao Wan'er lead her little group away without a second thought. She was the Commander's own sister, after all; here, she might as well have been at home.
"What a beautiful, spacious starship." Instructor Qin's eyes lit up as she took in the ship's long corridor. She had seen the interiors of other T3 interstellar warships — to squeeze out more combat performance, they almost always slashed comfort to the bone. Not one of them could hold a candle to the vessel around her now.
"The crew cabins in the dormitory block — even the worst of them sleep only four, and they come with their own bathrooms?" Led into the dormitory block by Zhao Wan'er, Instructor Qin took in the layout and marveled all the more at how extravagantly this starship had been designed. All that space — think how much weaponry and ammunition it could have carried instead!
"This is the ship's bathhouse. I've set out fresh clothes for you all here. You can shower over there, soak in the baths here, and there are automatic massage chairs and sun-lamps as well," explained the crew member showing them around.
"This is even better appointed than the T2 Queen Bee!" Zhao Wan'er exclaimed in delight.
Behind her, the whole group — Chu Xuan included — stood dumbfounded.
Su Lan pinched Xue Xiaoxiao's cheek.
"Ow— Sister Su Lan, what was that for!" Xue Xiaoxiao cupped her face, wounded.
"I just wanted to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me," Su Lan explained. "Is this really an interstellar warship, and not a luxury star-cruiser?"
Xue Xiaoxiao stamped her foot. "Then pinch your own face!"
"That hurts."
Xue Xiaoxiao: ……
"I never imagined the treatment aboard Zhao Chen's ship would be this good. I'm half tempted to enlist and serve on it myself," said Chu Xuan, caught between laughter and exasperation.
And then the group of beauties gave themselves over to their favorite moment of all.
Three days without a wash, layered over the reek of insect fluids — while their lives had hung in the balance, none of them had spared it a thought. But now that it had dawned on them, they broke out in goosebumps head to toe, thoroughly ill at ease. It took a full hour and more of scrubbing before they finally, utterly buried the stench.
Zhao Wan'er suggested they rest in the temporary cabins, but Instructor Qin and Su Lan declined; Xue Xiaoxiao looked a little let down, while Chu Xuan couldn't have cared less. So back to the hangar they all went.
When the teachers and students of the two academies saw Zhao Wan'er and the others return fresh and clean, their envy knew no bounds — one look at those renewed faces told everyone exactly where they'd been. The women of the two academies especially were positively green with jealousy. They wanted a bath too!
The instant she stepped back into the hangar, Zhao Wan'er's brow furrowed. She hadn't noticed it before, but now the hangar's indescribable stink hit her — and she finally understood why her big brother had said earlier that she reeked. Because… the smell truly was foul. But seeing that Instructor Qin and Su Lan meant to stay in the hangar regardless, she could only grit her teeth against it and wait with them.
At that moment, the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser was being met by the Imperial fleet.
Once the T3 Blizzard reached the safe zone, Zhao Chen had broadcast word that he'd rescued the teachers and students of the two academies, and the Imperial military had scrambled a fleet to receive them. It had to be said — sent to pull people out of bugs-controlled space, they'd dragged their heels endlessly, full of excuses; but now, coming to collect the rescued, their efficiency was a marvel of speed.
After conferring with the other side's commander, Zhao Chen decided to first make for a starport in the safe zone of the Water Lily Star System and offload the two academies' people there, after which another starship would escort the T3 Blizzard on to the starport in the neighboring Lantian Star System.
Zhao Chen raised no objection to the arrangement — he couldn't wait to be rid of this lot aboard his ship. Besides, carrying them through interstellar frontier space would mean putting them in hibernation pods. It wasn't that he lacked the pods; beyond the individual units, he kept collective hibernation pods for when personnel ran high. But the mere thought of these people in his collective pods — every last one of them stinking to high heaven — disgusted him. His collective pods would be as good as scrapped. The alternative was to have them wash up and change like Zhao Wan'er's group had — far too much bother. So this arrangement suited him best.
On the way to the Water Lily Star System starport, word of the rescue spread fast.
A commander from Northstar Academy had saved the teachers and students of two whole academies — on the strength of a single blue-and-white T3 interstellar battlecruiser of unknown make? In that instant every eye turned to this student-commander named Zhao Chen, and to that T3 interstellar battlecruiser — drawing even more attention than the rescued academics themselves.
Azure Star Region — Governor's Mansion
"Zhao Chen? A T3 interstellar battlecruiser?" Hearing the report, the Governor of the Azure Star Region pressed gravely, "You're certain this person went in with only the one ship?"
"Just the one, yes. And we have intelligence from Northstar Academy as well — when he set out, he did indeed take only this single interstellar warship," his subordinate reported.
The Governor narrowed his eyes. "To pull people out of a region that dangerous with a lone T3 warship…"
"Might it simply be luck?" the subordinate ventured.
"Luck?" The Governor gave a cold snort. "Only a fool would call this luck. I'm certain a great many powers in the Starlight Empire are watching this boy Zhao Chen right now. And look at this file — a T2 Black Rhino-class interstellar heavy assault frigate that can go toe-to-toe with a T2 Purple Rose-class Medium Interstellar Battlecruiser! Three decrepit hulks assembled into a single ship clocking 100 star-knots! This boy is anything but ordinary. It's entirely possible that he — or some organization or research lab standing behind him — is the one who developed this T3 interstellar battlecruiser. Investigate him! Once the two academies' people have disembarked, put someone on it — I want every detail of how this Zhao Chen rescued them. And once he reaches the Lantian Star System, find a way to bring him under control. Is that clear?"
"Sir!" The subordinate nodded and left to carry out the order.
The same scene was playing out among the leadership of countless other powers. Zhao Chen's pull had eclipsed even the hive-race catastrophe in the Water Lily Star System itself.
On the run to the Water Lily starport, Zhao Chen — pleading a warp-drive malfunction that left him on conventional engines alone — spent five days underway before finally reaching the starport.
When the hangar doors opened, the teachers and students of the two academies gazed at the reception staff awaiting them on the starport as though beholding long-lost kin. The staff, seeing so many of them come running out in tears, took it for the raw emotion of people who'd cheated death. Little did they know — these were tears wept for their wallets. Over those five days, more than a few of them hadn't been able to resist ordering meal after meal. How could their hearts not bleed!
Bridge
Zhao Chen watched on the display as the two academies' people filed off his ship, his face without expression. He knew what came next: these teachers and students would soon be quietly approached and courted by many parties, and the T3 Blizzard's entire rescue — including that glorious battle in which it annihilated one T3 Hive Mothership, crippled another, and tore its way out of the swarm — would reach the ears of the great powers.
A storm with him, Zhao Chen, at its eye was taking shape.
The pieces are all in position, Zhao Chen mused. Now we wait to see how it plays out.